Peek at the Past

100 Years Ago

January 24, 1924

L. C. Good has been putting up an ice crop on Medicine Lake the past few days and has the job nearly finished. All the ice houses around Sundance are now filled with a good quality of summer comfort

The carpenters finished up completely on schoolhouse work last week and the painters are due to close their job in a few days. It is expected that the high school pupils will be moved into the new building within ten days.

No more need Sundancers guess as to whether it's a fire or a charivari. The city council received a new 550-pound fire bell Friday and city marshal Hooper installed it at the city hall this week. The old bell had developed pneumonia and could hardly speak above a whisper in its last days of service.

75 Years Ago

January 27, 1949

Men working under the Robinson-Pitman Act of Congress are trapping white tail deer on state ground in the Sand Creek area in order to distribute them in various sections of the state for experimental purposes. The men have planned to take a few loads from Sand Creek.

Soon Sundance is to have a new, modern, up-to-date bakery soon, Harold Reed, formerly of Moorcroft, stated this week that he plans to open the bakery Monday, with free glazed doughnuts and coffee being served to the public. Reed has installed all new, modern equipment on the bottom floor of the Oddfellow's Lodge and is prepared to serve all bakery needs. Customers will be able to obtain bakery goods at the bakery and also at the local grocery stores. Reed has been in the bakery business for eight years in South Dakota and Wyoming, the last two of which were spent in Moorcroft. Reed, his wife, and six children live in another part of the building.

Three men were taken Wednesday morning by plane from Moorcroft to the Keyhole dam site about 15 miles northeast of town to try to get a tractor and trucks out of the drifted snow and to try to break a road to the highway. The three men, reclamation employees, Anderson, Jack Cranston and Floyd Mewhirter, took packs of food and bed rolls with them in preparation to be snowbound for a few days. The plane, which made several trips to the site, was from a Gillette airport ana had ski landing equipment to set down on the snow near the site.

50 Years Ago

January 24, 1974

The ups and downs of the energy situation saw one Sundance gasoline station without gasoline last week but remaining stations still had gasoline. Hiway Service Station, owned by Ted Speidel and selling Phillips 66 products, ran out of gasoline Jan. 17. The station was out of gasoline until Wednesday morning. Terry Speidel, son of the owner, said the station got 6000 gallons then but that it was mostly for agriculture use. He said the station will get its next allotment Feb. 1.